


Selected Correspondence of Aris Merrick, Martian surveyor

by ExtraPenguin



Category: Official NASA Journey to Mars Posters (2009), Original Work
Genre: Epistolary, Gen, Mars, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 04:20:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8953462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExtraPenguin/pseuds/ExtraPenguin
Summary: A new Martian sends letters to friends and family on Earth.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lalalalalawhy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalalalalawhy/gifts).



> [Map of Mars](http://oneminuteastronomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mars-map-mid.jpg)   
>  [Map of Mars, elevation in false color](https://natgeoeducationblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/seepsmarked.jpg)   
>  [Concept map of a terraformed Mars](http://orig07.deviantart.net/c07b/f/2013/202/8/5/mars_2450_by_sf95bahlg66-d6eg9ag.jpg)

Dear Verity & co

 

Sorry about the delay with this message; the hassle of landing and orientation was more than I expected. As before, it’s text-only due to bandwidth concerns. Back when it was only ten guys and a couple of robots, it was easy to send everything that was to be sent across the interplanetary void. Now, with the colonists numbering in the hundreds, everything has to be plaintext and compressed to hell and back to keep up. They’re installing more antennae as I write, but more than a bit of assembly is required.

I’ve been teamed up with a Dr. Sora Zaizen – old Mars hand, first shipment – to survey the landscape. The next few weeks are safety briefings and emergency drills, after which it’s Mars buggy operations nearby, and then in a month or so, I’ll get to go look at things myself! I am so, so, so excited.

How’re things back at the SAR? More tourists who don’t respect the mountains or the weather? Did they get that chopper fixed yet? Good to hear about the new recruits, they sound particularly sane. Or, well, as sane as people who willingly volunteer to go dig “clients” out of the snow in the worst weather conditions imaginable can be.

 

Your friend (and erstwhile colleague)  
Aris

 

* * *

 

Dear Mom & Dad,

 

I only have about ten minutes in between Mars buggy trainings to write this, so it’ll be brief. Apologies.

All that study aboard the Mangala paid off: I aced all my security drills, and got taken on a guided tour of the Mars around Pavonis Base. I’m used to the lower gravity, now, but the sheer MARSNESS of the surrounding Mars is still breathtaking. It’s right, but it’s also viscerally wrong. It reminds me quite a bit of the Death Valley National Park, albeit redder. Except that Mars is a flatter, grayer shade of red and red-orange, and is missing the yellows. And all the vegetation, and the breathable atmosphere, and the heat. Oh, and the sunlight. Dear old Sol is quite dim around these parts.

But now I must go to yet another training session.

 

Your dutiful daughter  
Aris

 

* * *

 

Hi, sister.

 

Now that there are at any time at least 33 million miles between us, I am willing to offer an olive branch. I know you disapprove of all of my life choices. I suggest you let go. I am on Mars, and here I shall remain until the day I die. You can have your investment banker husband and comfortable urban life and, indeed, all of the planet Earth. (Yes, even the wilderness bits that you wouldn’t touch with any length of stick.) I have my own planet, so you don’t have to share. It’s a nice planet, by the way, but pretty much the opposite of your taste, so.

Aris

 

* * *

 

Dear Verity & co

 

I got to ride in a Mars buggy! I got to drive

a

MARS

BUGGY. Across the Martian terrain! I am so excite!

Mars is a nice planet. Sure, it wants to kill you – even more actively than Earth – but it’s pretty. There’s talks of terraforming, but that’d take centuries. Meanwhile, I’ll document everything for posterity. And enjoy myself, of course.

Dr. Zaizen and I have been assigned to Elysium Base. It’s off to the West of Pavonis, and a bit to the North. We’re to make some treks to the North – first day trips, then overnight, up to a month long – to document the landscape and see if there are any nice settlement locations.

If you’ve seen the terraforming maps, you know that this area’ll be all underwater eventually. However, there’ll be several island chains nearby, and in the intermediate time, the brass want an oceanside cottage. Survey Central has lots of people who want to document everything.

It is a heady feeling, to know that if things go according to plan, one might be the only person to ever see these scenes oneself.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get all philosophical with you. I blame the time thing – a Martian sol is ever so slightly longer than an Earth day, and I’m still in the phase of it feeling slightly surreal. Dr. Zaizen says I’ll adapt.

 

Your friend  
Aris

 

* * *

 

Dear Verity & co

 

I am currently watching the Martian landscape of Utopia Planitia from the comfort of the Mars buggy. It’s a Mirihi-LDER, after the Swahili word for “Mars” and the words “Long Distance Expedition Rover”. Sora and I christened it “Stuckie”, because its chief talents include getting stuck, and then we have to get out and shovel Mars dust out of its tracks. A bug report has been sent, and the Mirihi-LDER mk II will apparently fix the problem. When we return to base, they might even have gotten some quick-fix tire replacements designed, made, and shipped. “Good practice for when we have to make all our things ourselves,” the base CO said. He seems like a nice enough guy. On top of things, certainly, though Elysium is the smallest of the five bases, and the furthest away.

The reason we’re here is not simply sightseeing or buggy-testing: we’re actually trekking across the vastness of Utopia Planitia to get to the Viking 2 landing site. We’re surveyors, so we’re taking a bit of a circuitous route via Elysium Fossae, just to the West of the base, and then driving in a sweeping arc. (The original plan was to go via Nier crater, way off to the West, but that would’ve taken way too much fuel.) Then, after looking at the Site Of Historic Importance, and taking a large quantity of suitably grave hi-rez photos that’ll probably end up on the news at your end, we’ll go East to Mie crater, then South to Elysium Base with a small detour to Hecates Tholus. The latter leg promises to be more scenic than our trip out: Utopia Planitia is reasonably flat.

Looking out the window, and especially when I’m out in a spacesuit, it’s the same, familiar set of emotions as anywhere else in the wilderness: the vastness of the horizon strikes me, even if I do feel that it’s closer, though that might be psychosomatic. The lower gravity makes me feel like I could go on forever, and the planet sings to me. It’s untouched, it’s untamed, it does not care if I live or die, and I want nothing more than to walk to the horizon and taste the thrill in my mouth.

When we’re back at base, I’ll have to undergo a comprehensive radiation damage assessment and some nanite therapy, but after that, I want to scale Elysium Mons.

 

Your friend  
Aris

 

* * *

 

Dear Mom & Dad

 

As you may have noticed, I am a minor media sensation for the pictures from the Viking 2 landing site. Dr. Zaizen’s currently driving the buggy, and we just left Mie crater for Hecates Tholus. It’ll be some weeks before we arrive. Hopefully, the media furor will have died down by the time we reach Elysium Base – I have no desire whatsoever to give any interviews to any media, I’d just embarrass everyone – but feel free to beam in pride at any reporters over there and revel in patriotic spirit.

I’ve accepted Mars into my heart, like all the deserts, mountains, and other wildernesses I’ve been in on Earth. Perhaps soon Mars will split into several wildernesses to me, rather than just one whole.

 

Your daughter  
Aris

 

* * *

 

Dear Verity & co

 

I’ve been composing this letter, on and off, in my head and on my pad, for weeks.

Mars has snuck its way in and clings to me like a burr. It’s like I told you, when I joined the SAR: the mountains snuck in and established themselves, and for as long as I was in them, they were all I could love. Then, gradually, each summit, each trail, each arroyo separated off into its own microcosm, until finally, it became a thousand little universes that engulfed me whenever I was in them. Each trail I trekked, I loved passionately with all my heart, in a way no human could ever match. Each summit I stood upon was the center of my universe for those moments.

Mars has begun to do the same for me. No longer is it merely a huge lump of MARSNESS: now, it’s Elysium Fossae and Mie crater and Hecates Tholus and I love them like the Sun burns for the duration I’m within them, and without, I feel nothing but fondness. A patchwork of nature.

Dr. Zaizen has told me a lot about geology. Looking at the rocks, she can see the history of the place. I aspire to remember all the details. I want nothing but to know.

 

Your friend  
Aris

 

* * *

 

Dear Verity & co

 

I’m back at Elysium Base. Oh my God do I hate dealing with reporters aaaaa. I hope my answers were bland enough to be unpublishable. Dr. Zaizen took the opportunity to tell the general public about geology, and the basics of what she could glean from visual investigation in the field. All the rock samples we took are now safely in the geology lab, labeled, and waiting for Dr. Zaizen and her colleagues to analyze them in more detail.

The radiation damage assessment is that I’m okay, but they’ll have me stay indoors, under the many feet of rock for a week while the little nanites go ‘round and repair any pre-cancerous cells. A necessity, in these conditions. Rumor has it someone on Earth has finally figured out a way to repair ova with nanites, which would mean that reproduction on Mars wouldn’t be confined to ova extracted on Earth and transported over in radiation-proof boxes, and sperm of either similar origin, or from those who’ve spent at least three months belowground. Oh, speaking of ova, I think you meet the eligibility criteria for donation and sending. They’d probably just be frozen for a few decades, but you could contribute to the genetic legacy of the human race on Mars, or whatever it is that the brochure says. Might even have menopause arrive quicker.

Now, I must laze about and contemplate the vast Martian desert for at least a week. Next letter, hopefully I’ll have gone up the mountain.

 

Your friend  
Aris

 

* * *

 

Dear Verity & co

 

I did it. I went mountaineering on Mars!

It’s rather similar to Earth, except that everything’s slower, and there’s no wind. I mean, the windspeed’s huge, but there’s not enough air to really push, yanno? And everything falls slower. It’s an adjustment to make, and no less lethal than on Earth, since even if the rocks fall slower, you move slower, too. Something to do with gravity and force and what we’re calibrated to.

I didn’t summit, of course, but climbed up a thousand feet or so of Elysium Mons and took a nice picture of Elysium Base’s surface-visible bits – and the lava shield. It’s an active volcano, after all. The pictures should end up on the Earth website for the Mars Needs You site, as the view is quite nice.

Oh, and no need to panic, it’s not like I went up alone. The base commander, Radek Kowalczyk, is an experienced mountaineer. He’s a nice guy – understands the realities of wilderness. Doesn’t talk too much, but isn’t all silent, either.

He also told me that there’s this mountain in Chad on Earth, Emi Koussi, which is similar enough to Elysium Mons to be studied as an analogue. It can be climbed, if you feel like trekking up a volcano to get something almost like a Mars experience. Or just trek through Death Valley in a space suit.

Also, good news: Elysium Base is getting its own Earth-capable receiver and transmitter array, which should mean that I get less grouchy glares when I go send long messages. Pavonis Base is upgrading its equipment, so sometime soon, we’re getting audio – perhaps even video! – capability. Fingers crossed.

 

Your friend  
Aris

 

P.S. They delivered the new tires. Based on a preliminary spin, they’re much less likely to get stuck. Yay!

 

* * *

 

Dear Mom & Dad

 

As I told you before, the wilderness comes first, before any man, woman, child, or other sentient or semisentient being. I will not sacrifice my reason to exist on the altar of grandchildren.

However.

Dr. Sora Zaizen, my expedition partner, has her own biological children – being raised by a gay farmer couple at Pavonis Base. Lots of surveyors apparently have arrangements with partners at their home base, where the other parent does the bulk of the child care. Some children are raised entirely in crèches.

I am willing to let a fertilized ovum of mine be grown in one of the artificial wombs; I decided that much when I signed up to go. My potential relationship with said descendant, or the sperm donor, is still under consideration. I’ll ponder the question while I’m on my next survey mission, to Phlegra Montes and Arcada Planitia. Or just look out the window; that’s less existentially terrifying.

In news that is more likely to satisfy you, they’re confirming that there’ll be a high-volume transmitter array on Pavonis Mons, the first bit of which will be in operation soon enough. Next time I send a message, you should be able to hear my voice.

In the future, we might even get timelaggy video. Who knows.

 

Your daughter  
Aris

**Author's Note:**

> And in case you didn't realize, Aris Merrick is "Aris" due to its similarity to "Ares" (the Greek word for Mars) and "Merrick" due to its similarity to "Merrikh" (the Arabic word for Mars).


End file.
